A young English poet, Dennis Barlow, goes to LA to live with his uncle, Sir Francis Hinsley, who works at a film studio. Fired by the studio, Sir F...
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Dec 17, 2009
Paige
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The copy I had of this was used, and had underlines where the previous reader would note in the margin "funny," and "ha." This reader stopped doing this by the third or fourth page, either because s/he no longer found it funny, or it became absurd to underline all passages and mark them as "ha." I think most readers will fall into either of these categories. I am in "ha."
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Dec 16, 2009
Erica
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Evelyn Waugh is my guilty pleasure. His books are like candy, they are so easy to read. But if they are candy, they are lemon drops coated with arsenic. Waugh's bitter, sarcastic, and completely devastating portraits of humanity warm my heart. His characters destroy each other's lives so casually, and I love it.
In The Loved One, Waugh takes on L.A. British neocolonial snobbery in post-war Southern California, set in a Disneyesque funeral home (actually a "memorial park") a More...
In The Loved One, Waugh takes on L.A. British neocolonial snobbery in post-war Southern California, set in a Disneyesque funeral home (actually a "memorial park") a More...
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Jan 24, 2008
Chloe
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While not my favorite book in the world, I have to say I enjoyed this macabre little satire. Perhaps the somewhat unusual humor appealed to me. I tend to find such things as funeral parlors and crematoriums amusing. I do not, however, find the story to be quite as condescending towards Americans as some people have said it was. The British characters were not especially intelligent, either. In fact, I would say that there are no attractive characters in the story. Which is part of the reason why
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Sep 07, 2009
I remember really liking this when I read it about 6 or 7 years ago (reading it in the bath in some American hotel - strange I remember that). I have a lot on my currently reading list at the minute, but I just can't cope with super-info-heavy books like The Fall of Yugoslavia when I'm in the bath, eating, or otherwise not equipped to scribble down notes in an attempt to understand the highly complex Baltic machinations.
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Feb 04, 2012
Ira
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Dec 08, 2011
Dustin
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Firstly, I shall discuss the plot: A young Englishman in America--whom is not respected by his compatriots due to the unfortunate fact that he works at, and enjoys working at, a Hollywood Pet Cemetery. He falls in love with a young woman whom happens to work for the lush and expansive Human cemetery as a cosmetician. She also happens to be in a semi-committed relationship with the Human Cemetery's Head Embalmer, Mr. Joyboy.
The book is filled with English wit, rapid fire dialogue, satire (W More...
The book is filled with English wit, rapid fire dialogue, satire (W More...
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Oct 29, 2011
Anne
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The satire is hilarious; so many quotable lines; the ending is still disturbingly cold, even for Waugh.
My specific reason for reading The Loved One, of course, is because of my cemetery project. Although Waugh obviously doesn't have much actual sense of Los Angeles as a place (and never claimed to, explicitly stating in the foreword that this is a 'fantasy') - one thing that always amazes me is how Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, which is the basis for the "Whispering G More...
My specific reason for reading The Loved One, of course, is because of my cemetery project. Although Waugh obviously doesn't have much actual sense of Los Angeles as a place (and never claimed to, explicitly stating in the foreword that this is a 'fantasy') - one thing that always amazes me is how Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Glendale, which is the basis for the "Whispering G More...
Aug 16, 2011
Frederick
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About two-thirds of the way through this novella (which is what this novel is) a character comments on Henry James's penchant for describing innocent Americans facing jaded Europeans. This novel (novella, I mean), about a European (or Englishman, which is a different thing, actually) among Americans seems to me to be a spin on Henry James. To its last sentence it is Jamesian, although the prose is much simpler.
For a guy who has a tin ear when it comes to American dialogue, Waugh certainly More...
For a guy who has a tin ear when it comes to American dialogue, Waugh certainly More...
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May 01, 2011
Jessica
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I got so wrapped up in The Loved One that I couldn't put it down after getting off the train and read it WHILE I walked home. Don't worry, I looked up for intersections!
The Loved One is a comedy framed by suicides and enacted almost exclusively in funeral parlors. Dennis Barlow is a displaced English poet living in Hollywood, who works for a funeral parlor for pets - the Happier Hunting Ground. He falls in love with the absurdly, appropriately named Aimée Thanatogenos, cosmetician for More...
The Loved One is a comedy framed by suicides and enacted almost exclusively in funeral parlors. Dennis Barlow is a displaced English poet living in Hollywood, who works for a funeral parlor for pets - the Happier Hunting Ground. He falls in love with the absurdly, appropriately named Aimée Thanatogenos, cosmetician for More...
Dec 14, 2010
Tom
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Evelyn Waugh is a writer to approach with caution. At his best he is mournful and elegiac, deeply moving (Brideshead Revisited). He can also be wistfully, bitterly funny (A Handful of Dust). At his worst (Vile Bodies) he descends into silliness, seeming to aim for and miss a kind of humour akin to that of P. G. Wodehouse. The Loved One is an example of his best.
It is in parts touching and in parts caustic, with just the right admixture of the two. There are some wonderfully biting line More...
It is in parts touching and in parts caustic, with just the right admixture of the two. There are some wonderfully biting line More...
Apr 07, 2010
David
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My appreciation of Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One is authentic, sure, but at the same time a little reserved because, try as I might, I can't convincingly revise my initial impression of it as a cheap shot at American life and values -- which isn't to say that it isn't funny or compelling or entertaining, but rather that in the considerable chunk of time separating us from the initial publication of The Loved One (this time marking the ascendancy of the United States on the global stage both polit
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Dec 10, 2008
Manda
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A viciously funny satire of the American pre-packaged lifestyle, The Loved One takes place in postwar Los Angeles. Waugh puts his Oxonian wit to good use here, as even the name of his tragic heroine, Aimee Thanatogenos, is in itself a wickedly funny little in-joke. Thanatogenos translates to something roughly meaning "Family of Death" (I say roughly, I took Latin in college, not Greek), which suits her as she's fully indoctrinated into the cult of death at Whispering Glades, the mortua
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Sep 10, 2009
Stacy
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Earlier this week, on 9/6 to be precise, I was looking for a short unread novel on my shelf. There are of course many, but you have to be in the mood. I spotted this one, which I had bought sometime last year on a whim at Powell's and when I cracked open the cover, I saw "9/06" written there in pencil. A sign that I should start reading it that day? Maybe it was just when it was entered at Powell's, September of 2006, or some other bookstore code. Regardless, it felt synchronistic and
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Jul 05, 2010
Shar
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If I were writing an AP English Lit essay about "dark comedy," this short novel would make a meaty body paragraph. It's a little romantic comedy set in Hollywood; a love triangle between a mama's boy mortician, a captivating corpse beautician, and a young English poet with writer's block who's seeking a muse. Oh, and he works in a pet mortuary.
The Loved One was a welcome treat, especially since I felt so lukewarm about the last Waugh I read (Decline and Fall). Biting sat More...
The Loved One was a welcome treat, especially since I felt so lukewarm about the last Waugh I read (Decline and Fall). Biting sat More...
Dec 09, 2011
Erin
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I perhaps do The Loved One an injustice and reveal myself to be a tragically inept reviewer (alas, no doubt repeating what I've heard elsewhere) if I use phrases like "insidious," "satiric," "irreverent," "macabre," and "delicious" to describe the book, or if I mention that it seemed reminiscent of Huxley and Chandler, if they were to collaborate on a story on the same subject.
None of the characters were presented in a particularly posi More...
None of the characters were presented in a particularly posi More...
Aug 31, 2011
Lauren
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I read this book in college for British Novel. It seemed quite amusing at the time, but it's sinking in a littler deeper now. It's sharp satire of the American denial of death, Hollywood--and lots of other stuff--decadent, washed-up British imperialism; pointless European cynicism, ignorant American culturelessness, what else? This time around, I found Dennis' jaded comments quite pithy--he's the young British poet who has a job at a Los Angeles pet cemetery. But I was getting a little too inter
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Sep 05, 2009
Jason
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An hilarious send up of the of the commodified death. Waugh's prose is superb and his glaring English Eye cast upon the lowly Americans that populate the novel open up the opportunity for many clever passages. One of my favorites comes at the beginning of the novel:
[The Americans (particularly those of Hollywood California):] are a very decent generous lot of people out here and they don't expect your to listen. Always remember that, dear boy. It's the secret of social ease in this countrMore...
Jan 28, 2009
Velvetink
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Satire on the funeral business, in which a young British poet goes to work at a Hollywood cemetery. I had seen the 1965 movie of the same name by director Tony Richardson and Richardson seems to have followed the script quite well.
The Loved One is full of sly, macabre humour, and some of the funniest scenes occur when Aimee goes home with Mr. Joyboy to meet his mother–a miserable woman whose bosom companion is a naked parrot named Sambo. The Loved One is one of the oddest novels in More...
The Loved One is full of sly, macabre humour, and some of the funniest scenes occur when Aimee goes home with Mr. Joyboy to meet his mother–a miserable woman whose bosom companion is a naked parrot named Sambo. The Loved One is one of the oddest novels in More...
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May 02, 2010
Charles
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Amazing. Read this after watching the equally funny, weird, & caustic film. I wish I'd read the novel prior to watching the movie. At 160 pages, it's a quick read. The film gives Waugh's LA satire an extra twist. Terry Southern & Christopher Isherwood did a great job with the screenplay. I thought the "Bird, born of egg" bit funnier than the scene in the book. Also the section with Mr Joyboy's Mom in the movie is much weirder than the scene Waugh painted in the novel. But Waugh's pro
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Dec 30, 2011
Anne
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I really wanted this to be funny. I think that was the problem--I went in with heightened expectations, because A.L. Kennedy nominated The Loved One as the funniest book she had ever read. And it does have its moments (on Radio 4 they read out a couple of passages which were really genuinely hilarious). Mostly it's just very strange, and very cynical. I thought the chapters that were about the mortuaries were both the funniest and the most interesting, and I was definitely not expecting the
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Apr 17, 2010
Gina
rated it:
This book has further cemented my desire to be quietly cremated. No embalming, no creepy viewings.
I was concerned initially because the beginning of the book deals with pet funerals and I'm a little sensitive on the subject, but Waugh didn't linger there. Instead, he turned his attention to the business of human funerals. It's a very sharp satire that could probably be considered in bad taste, but I loved it.
I'd give the story about 3 stars, but it has a number of r More...
I was concerned initially because the beginning of the book deals with pet funerals and I'm a little sensitive on the subject, but Waugh didn't linger there. Instead, he turned his attention to the business of human funerals. It's a very sharp satire that could probably be considered in bad taste, but I loved it.
I'd give the story about 3 stars, but it has a number of r More...
Jul 12, 2010
Sam
rated it:
funny in parts. very funny in other parts. nothing earnest about it, aside from the satire, which is fine as far as it goes, but i don't know: i've read two books by waugh, now - a handful of dust and this one - and i've had the sense both times that i'm dealing with an author of extraordinary power who, for one reason or another, doesn't care that much about his characters. i appreciate the humor and i appreciate the writing and i like some of the characters a great deal, but i don't quite care
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Jul 23, 2010
Ken
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In the hand of any other writer, a macabre little book such as this would come across as overwrought and fall apart from too much nudging and winking at the reader. But only a Brit of Evelyn Waugh’s superb wit and writing prowess could concoct a story of death, cemeteries, suicide, and Hollywood that expertly skewers the American way of life (and the writer’s own countrymen).
Whenever a discussion of satirical novels comes up, the two masterpieces I always think of are Terry Southern’ More...
Whenever a discussion of satirical novels comes up, the two masterpieces I always think of are Terry Southern’ More...
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Oct 04, 2011
Julia
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Very funny and sarcastic little book, but also sad in the end. British snobbishness versus the American Way of Life are portrayed in perfection. The way how society deals with death is extremely revealing - in The Loved One the escapist cemetery becomes a parable of life. Illusions are more important than reality, the ever-present "think-pink" of the American dream is suffocating. Still, also the British superiority complex of the little community living in Hollywood and the emotional
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Apr 03, 2009
L.J.
rated it: 
Interesting- a comedy of "manners" set in Los Angeles in the 1950's. Essentially it is a meditation on the love-hate relationship the British have with American culture: the protagonist and his love interest are equally obnoxious, shallow and, eventually annoying. It took me an effort to finish the last 20 pages. The first 3/4's of the book was amusing cultural parody, but once the book took the "romance" as it's focal metaphor, the whole thing went to the dogs. There were so
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Jan 15, 2008
Faith-Anne
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This a perfect dark-comedy. "The Loved One" is filled with memorable characters & situations that will stay in your head for years to come.
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Oct 21, 2011
Mary Alice
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The books of Evelyn Waugh were recommended to me because of my fascination with the Mitfords. This book was NOT recommended as a good starting point but I chose to start with it because
1. it was dedicated to Nancy Mitford
2. the book that I was told to start with (Scoop) was not on the shelf in my local library, and I was too impatient to wait for a reserve copy.
This is an unusual comic story about two Hollywood funeral homes and the people who work in them, one a poet. More...
1. it was dedicated to Nancy Mitford
2. the book that I was told to start with (Scoop) was not on the shelf in my local library, and I was too impatient to wait for a reserve copy.
This is an unusual comic story about two Hollywood funeral homes and the people who work in them, one a poet. More...
Oct 01, 2008
A brilliant satire and a joy to fill your head with. Waugh was the master of the well turned phrase.
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Feb 06, 2012
Marten
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Simply hilarious. This novel, set in the early era of Hollywood, captures the crazy world of Southern California in the infancy of the ridiculous, larger than life, Hollywood Stars. Through an ex-pat Brit who wants to avoid being British and all that being British stands for in the "Hollywood Colony" and the wonderfully hilarious characters (not-to-mention ridiculous names), I laughed the entire time that I read this book. Waugh's sense of comedy and satire make a story about a Pet Mor
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May 31, 2010
Hillery
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Short satiric novel by Evelyn Waugh from the late 40s set at a large cemetery in Los Angeles that caters to Hollywood and the movie star set. The main character, who is charged with arranging a funeral for a formerly successful movie writer who committed suicide, compares the excess of this place with his place of employment---Happier Hunting Grounds, a pet cemetery and crematorium. Waugh uses the cemetery business as his way to comment on America's ability to package and market anything, rega
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